


Labor and Delivery (PT:1)

by missditsydarcy



Series: "Autumn Child" Verse OneShots [4]
Category: Free!
Genre: I'm horrible, M/M, Mpreg, This got long, i feel bad but not, labor, poor nitori, rin's a drama queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22537528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missditsydarcy/pseuds/missditsydarcy
Summary: “Rin? Are you okay?”“Ngh—No,” the pregnant one seethes, pressing hard against his already drum-tight abdomen as the skin feels like it’s being shrunk into an even tighter ball than it already is, the feeling welling up faster and faster—Rin knows he doesn’t want to be on the phone when the bad part hits, but all the same he doesn’t want to let Sousuke go. He knows that he needs to tell his husband that…God, this must really be happening. It’s only been another…what, seven minutes?? And he knows that he might still be jumping the gun but…with how different and painful it feels, there’s a part of him that feels like his body is telling him…that it really is time no matter if they feel prepared or not. “Sousuke, I—think this is really it; I’m…I might be in labor.”
Relationships: Hazuki Nagisa/Ryuugazaki Rei, Matsuoka Rin/Yamazaki Sousuke, Nanase Haruka/Tachibana Makoto
Series: "Autumn Child" Verse OneShots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/942660
Comments: 5
Kudos: 43





	Labor and Delivery (PT:1)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello I hope you won't all hate me after this... :'D  
> This was supposed to be one part and then it got super long so I decided to split it into two.  
> I hope you enjoy it though! :)

The muffled sounds of the weather man on the television merely accentuate Rin’s sigh as he runs his hand over his pregnant belly, humming just slightly as he feels the baby girl within react to his sudden touch—though at a day prior to his 38 week mark of pregnancy he’s forever marveling at how on earth she could even move at all, his abdominal skin feeling so substantially elasticated that he’s convinced if she grows any more that he’ll just… _explode_ or something, no matter how much his doctor had strained to convince him otherwise (Sousuke too, God he was almost getting annoying with his new preoccupation of hovering every time Rin would wince with the jab of pain from an elbow or foot within his stomach, like he was anticipating Rin to explode as well.) or from the reassuring words of his friend’s whom had both experienced this beforehand.

“The ‘last’ Autumn snowstorm, eh?” Rin articulates, clicking his tongue before chuckling, eyeing his abdomen as his skin pokes out with his daughter’s review of the weather forecast. Then, both of them seem to start as another noise is heard, Rin looking in the direction of the front door before he sighs, struggling to almost slide out of his seat before he waddles over to open the door to let his friend in, who he had been expecting. “Hey, Ai—”

Nitori Aiichirou, his old friend from Samezuka Academy stands, rather gaping at the expanse of his senpai before him, the latter scratching his stomach before seeming to roll his eyes as he anticipates what’s coming—careful placement of hands on his belly, asking how long he has left—when he’s planning to… _pop_ , among other arduous pleasantries as such.

“Rin-senpai,” Ai says, blue eyes still gaping at such a sight, though they had just seen each other not two weeks before, feet teetering between the lines of inside or outside of his friend’s home as he’s waiting politely for his pregnant friend to invite him in.

Of course, before he has a chance to say anything else, Rin’s hand is up, so as if to say ‘skip the pleasantries’ as he takes a step or two back so Nitori can come in much to Rin’s chagrin, having swallowed various visits from old friends the last couple of weeks while Sousuke is at work until his paternity leave begins not two days before Christmas.

He’s been trying, _really_ trying hard to not cause any more trouble after three consequent visits to the hospital, completely convinced that he had gone into labor, rousing his husband at ungodly hours of the night, only to make it to the hospital to find out they’d jumped the gun… _again_ —but, suffice to say it was very hard to tell if it was really labor, and Nitori was being ever-so blessedly compliant, which is more than he could say, ironically, for those who had already been in this situation before (Makoto nearly jumped out of his skin every time Rin would take a deep breath or wince, Haruka was far too enamored with whatever was going on in his mind, Nagisa exhausted Rin too much, and Rei…was oddly infatuated with researching ways to induce labor for the expectant parent’s comfort levels).

Still, the visits from Ai weren’t completely devoid of some of those vexing comments from one concerned friend to another—Rin, near paralyzed by those incessant fears surrounding parents-to-be about not making it to the hospital, about birth, or some crazy scenario where Sousuke doesn’t get to see his daughter being born—whilst Nitori is consumed by that potential responsibility to be Rin’s anchor, should the time come when Sousuke isn’t somewhere nearby.

“How are you feeling?” Ai queries, sliding easily out of his puffy parka-like coat and taking a seat somehow right beside where Rin had been sitting just minutes before.

“Still here, aren’t I??” Rin, half jests, chuckling a little as he rubs circles on his stomach as his daughter pokes him within from the most recent commotion of hearing another voice in the room. He takes a deep breath and then balances himself against the archway leading to their living room, nodding in Nitori’s direction and then jerking his head in the direction of their kitchen, trying his hardest to remain uncharacteristically hospitable for as long as the feeling lasts before the fatigue sets in again (though honestly the gesture might be heavily sponsored by the concept of getting a snack himself!) “You hungry, or—Sousuke picked up a box of that tea you like so much as a…sort of…thank you, or whatever…”

“I’m fine,” Ai quips, completely characteristically politely of him as he stands and then makes a movement in Rin’s direction. “What would you like?” He asks, making Rin laugh amidst his obvious disconcert about being found out as a, sort of, _double agent_ so easily. “You probably should be resting as much as possible—”

“ _Thanks, mom_ ,” Rin says, pinching the bridge of his nose before he takes a deep breath, shaking his head as he sobers a bit. “I’m sorry—yes, I think I could go for… _something_. I’m just not sure what yet…”

Nitori follows him dutifully towards the kitchen, but for some reason they’re stopped in the middle of the hallway when Rin stalls, hands balling up as he presses against the wall, taking in a sharp breath as he winces.

“Damn Braxton-Hicks,” Rin seethes, seeming to recover nearly a minute afterwards—grunting as he practically sees Nitori mentally kicking himself for not breaking out the contraction tracker app he had downloaded on his own phone to aid them should he be in a situation like this. He takes in one last deep breath before running his hands over his abdomen to calm his little girl—or maybe himself—from this jarring new feeling. Of course, he’d had many ‘a Braxton-Hick’s, his body seemed to revel in preparing itself for labor and delivery—but something about this felt… _different_ , though another part of him can’t seem to trust himself after various events such as this.

“You should sit down, Rin-senpai,” Ai says rather urgently, holding his hands out and over Rin’s upper arms so he can escort his friend if needed, though Rin sure enough was able to waddle the rest of the way himself. Of course, the most concerning part then became the fact that Rin obeyed the previous instruction. “That seemed like…a bad one…kind of.”

“Some are worse than others,” Rin says absently, nudging his head in the direction of the food pantry. “Let’s go ahead and feed the kid; sometimes she just kicks extra hard when she’s hungry… She’s like Sousuke already…”

Now it’s Nitori’s turn to obey, watching Rin carefully as the other man nods or shakes his head as he gestures to different things in his friend’s food pantry. Eventually Rin settles on some dried fruits and crisps, instructing that he’ll mix it with some yogurt while he sips on his cold-water bottle, hoping that this act would help divulge the practice contractions if they didn’t seem to want to go away.

“I bet that’s exciting,” Nitori recites as he takes a seat across from Rin at the table with the 8oz container of yogurt in tow. “Your baby already seems to have a personality even before she’s fully with us… What did she get from you, Rin-senpai?”

Rin doesn’t respond until he’s very diligently doused his yogurt with dried apples and dates and the sort, stirring the concoction like this action would help him to think of a proper answer.

“Sousuke’s always saying she’s stubborn like me…but I’ve always said she gets that from him,” Rin says, chuckling before grimacing and taking a big swig of his water bottle. He takes a minute to seem to gather himself before he continues any sort of thought. “The doc is always saying she has a ton of hair…but I guess that doesn’t say anything about who’s hair it is—I dunno, I guess I’ve always pictured her looking more like Sousuke. Not that it matters…of course.”

Ai nods in understanding, and the room falls into a momentary silence, followed by the distant howling of the wind against the window in front of the kitchen sink—Rin shivers, but Nitori is suddenly getting more suspicious of the act having to do with something completely different than their current snow storm.

“Geez, I hope they let Sousuke out early,” Rin suddenly speaks, and Nitori looks over to find that they’d both been looking in the direction of the window. “It sounds wicked out there…and we wouldn’t want you to get stuck here with us, eh?”

Then, just like clockwork, almost as if some ethereal being had been listening in on the conversation—the wind howls, there’s an almost whirring sound all around them as the lights flicker, turn off and then back on again before doing so two more times before finally it switches off again.

“ _Damn_ ,” Rin breathes, looking all around like maybe he had missed something before pressing his hand hard on the bottom of his stomach as he stands up and then makes to waddle over to the cabinet where they keep the flashlights and candles for this exact purpose. “Maybe you ought to leave while you still can—”

Nitori can hear Rin chuckle in the next room just as his phone rings, Sousuke’s name flashing on the screen before he quietly answers the call, keeping his voice down so as to not upset Rin with his husband checking in like he does almost every day.

Sousuke reports that there’s a winter storm warning for their area and that he’s been given special clearance to leave the office since Rin’s so close to full term, and everyone knows that there’s no telling when he could get back if he waited too long—especially with his normal 35 minute commute that he expects will be stretched to about an hour with traffic and road conditions coming home. Nitori gets the feeling that Sousuke isn’t exactly asking him to stick around, but he almost wants to do exactly that without even having to be asked.

“Don’t worry, Sousuke-senpai—everything’s fine here. The wind seems to be the worst of it for now so I’ll stay for as long as I can. Rin-senpai doesn’t seem too concerned about this—”

Just then, Nitori’s heart drops near to the floor as a loud crash is heard in the other room. He almost doesn’t want to believe that it was in the other room, but even more he can’t seem to believe that he’s able to keep his composure while he finishes the conversation with Sousuke and hangs up before he bolts in the direction of the noise to find a rather startled Rin surrounded by glass and wax from a candle broken on the ground in the living room.

As soon as Rin sees his friend he erupts into tears, doing his best to watch the floor around him as his stocking feet try and bypass the glass while Nitori makes it over to him at an almost record speed.

“No, no, Rin-senpai, don’t move! There’s glass everywhere—”

“I’m fine—I just…dropped it,” Rin says, though with his tone it almost seems obvious that this isn’t entirely true. His hand is rubbing his stomach slightly and he still has a pained look on his face amid his admittedly dazed expression. “Just—help me grab the dust brush will you so I can…clean this up.”

Nitori doesn’t waste any time, leaving Rin to his own devices for only a moment so he can grab the dustpan and brush—staggering back as fast as he’s able, moments later, only to find his senpai doubled over, hands hard around his middle as he grunts, moaning a little while he seems to try and will himself to keep breathing and stay where he’s stood.

Rin continues panting, barely able to keep himself upright, moans and grunts escaping his lips while a horrible gut-wrenching feeling settles in his gut as Nitori pokes his head into the pregnant man’s field of vision—Rin furrowing his brow and then practically falling into his friend’s arms, who is blessedly alert enough to catch him, somehow, and then help him to walk over to an appropriate place to sit down.

“How many of these now?” Nitori asks breathlessly, opening up his contraction counter app even before the two make eye contact that solidifies the pertinence of this situation.

“This is…aagh…the second one like this,” Rin seethes, still trying to catch his breath while his other hand harshly grapples at the fabric of his shirt, suddenly feeling all kinds of hot and bothered while he remains under Nitori’s close observation. “The first was…when I dropped the candle.”

Nitori looks at the time on his phone, a pang of apprehension settling in his chest and gut as he notices that it had barely been five minutes since the first one… _like this_ , as Rin had put it.

“W-what do we do?” Rin suddenly cries, grimacing as his breath seems to escalate and his hands seem to try and push him up so he can pace around the room or something at the same time that there’s something in his being that tells him he should stay right where he is even though the physical pain had officially subsided. “S-Sousuke isn’t here…where is he, God, this can’t really be it can it? It’s…just another Braxton Hick’s I’m sure of it…I told you that some are worse than others—”

“Rin-senpai,” Nitori says urgently, hand coming out to rest, assuring, on his friend’s shoulder to try and get Rin to look at him. “Everything’s alright; do you remember where your book is?”

By now Rin is full-on bawling, shivering and rubbing his upper arms while he tries to formulate the words so he can help his friend by answering such a simple question that surely, he would know the answer to. The book, the pregnancy book which held all of the vital information that he would need to know when it was really time as opposed to when it might not be. He tried to hold onto that thought as he tells Ai that it’s in their bedroom on his night table, nodding and continuing to take deep calming breaths while his friend departs for a moment to go and retrieve the book.

He closes his eyes, willing himself to stop crying until he hears Nitori’s footsteps once more, when the tears start up all over again.

“The book says that hospitals typically will only take in patients when the contractions are less than ten minutes apart, and are happening for longer than an hour consistently. So…this could be it, but it might not be as well.”

Rin nods, squeezing his eyes shut again as his hand rubs his protruding stomach and he forces himself to take some more deep breaths—a calming sensation from within him swelling as he feels his baby calm too.

“It’s okay, we’re fine,” he croons, sniffling as his lips stretch into a weary smile when he feels his baby resituating herself after such an ordeal. “It’s all up to you now, baby girl—I should…call your papa, shouldn’t I?”

He let’s out a cleansing breath as he pulls out his phone and speed dials his husband, hand still stroking his middle while he waits for an answer on the other line—Nitori slipping over across the room to clean up the mess that had been made, when Rin absolutely falls apart again over the sound of Sousuke’s voice.

“Sousuke,” Rin croaks, sniffling as some rogue tears fall from his eyes. “Your daughter wants you to come home…”

“I’m on my way,” Sousuke answers on the other side of the line, smiling affectionately as he envisions Rin’s complacent face in thinking that what he had said had anything to do with his own answer. “The last autumn snow storm, eh?”

“T-that’s what I said,” Rin enthuses, grimacing at the pang of his daughter shifting within him, feeling the flutter of his heart as he struggles to find the right words to say. “But listen—that’s really good to hear because—”

He takes in a sharp breath, the dread settling in as he gets that feeling—the build up like before that tells him that his body is preparing to expel a baby much faster than they had anticipated.

“Rin? Are you okay?”

“Ngh—No,” the pregnant one seethes, pressing hard against his already drum-tight abdomen as the skin feels like it’s being shrunk into an even tighter ball than it already is, the feeling welling up faster and faster—Rin knows he doesn’t want to be on the phone when the bad part hits, but all the same he doesn’t want to let Sousuke go. He knows that he needs to tell his husband that… _God, this must really be happening. It’s only been another…what, seven minutes_?? And he knows that he might still be jumping the gun but…with how different and painful it feels, there’s a part of him that feels like his body is telling him…that it really is time no matter if they feel prepared or not. “Sousuke, I—think this is really it; I’m…I might be in labor.”

* * *

“S-screw the damn book—aah!” Rin shouts, grunting and groaning as he forces his body to sway, fingers digging into the carpet as he’s rocking on his hands and knees, blanket covering his lower half as he tries his damndest to get his friend to just listen to him. “You think there’s any way in hell that I wouldn’t know better about what’s going on in my body? The baby’s coming now—get over here and help me…please?”

Forty-five minutes and many contractions less than five minutes apart, later—it certainly felt like things were progressing, at least on Rin’s part. He had barked for Nitori to fill their tub so he could sit and try to alleviate some of his pain, and it had barely done the job before Rin decided that it was time to move on and he ended up in the living room with a frantic Nitori who is trying so hard to make sense of any of this using the books when the one in labor is doing everything to tell him to forget everything that he’s reading and to just do his damn bidding. It seems as though the baby didn’t want to wait for her papa to come home, no matter how much everybody else did.

“Rin-senpai, has your water broken yet? It says here that once the water breaks it’s likely that the delivery isn’t far behind.”

“How would I know I was in the tub, remember? I’m sure it did I just need you to listen to me; the baby is definitely coming please just help me Ai. I’ll never ask anything—agh, of you again I _swear_ —”

Just then Nitori’s phone rings, it’s a frazzled-sounding Sousuke telling him that he might be delayed a few minutes—much to Ai’s chagrin as Rin let’s out a hearty scream, doubled over and seeming to try and push something out. The phone call ends abruptly and it then finds Nitori sitting on the business half of his senpai, bottom blessedly still covered by the blanket even though he supposes that he should just get over it since it appears he’ll be delivering a baby today, of all things.

“O—okay Rin-senpai, I trust you, and I promise I’ll do whatever I can to help,” Nitori resigns—shaking hands stretching out to lift up the blanket to begin a process that he had never seen coming in all his life.

“ _What the hell_?” comes Sousuke’s voice and it’s unknown to either man if they had ever been happier to hear such a sound. “Rin, what’s going on?”

“Sousuke the baby’s coming now,” Rin near shouts, grunting as he struggles to position himself so his bottom is facing his husband, who immediately gasps, getting down on his knees and pulling up his sleeves as he peers closely at the space in question.

Rin grunts, straining as he starts pushing—though he doesn’t know what, exactly—until Sousuke holds out a hand for him to stop.

“I don’t think so,” he reports, peering once again at the spot in question before he nods in resignation. “Don’t see anything.”

“Wh—no, Sousuke I can feel her— _something_ —down there, it has to be it…”

Sousuke nods, but then turns his attention to Nitori who is more white in the face than he’s ever seen anyone before—thanking him and then letting the man leave their presence before he fully turns his attention back to his husband, who he left, struggling, straining on the floor because, let’s face it, he wasn’t going to go anywhere—holding out his hand to help his husband up.

“Are you finished yet?” Sousuke deadpans, a smirk pulling at his lips as he watches Rin’s face turn incredulous.

“I hate you,” Rin seethes, shaking his head to refuse his husband’s help. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I feel—”

“Neither do you,” Sousuke amends, taking a deep breath before sitting cross-legged on the floor next to his husband, running his fingers through his hair before he continues his thought. “It’s our first time having a baby, neither one of us know what we’re doing, but I think it’s pretty straightforward and until I can see the top of our daughter’s head I would bet any money that we still have a little time. Not much, but enough to get to the hospital; what do you say?”

Rin blinks, still panting a little as he actually starts to consider what his husband as said. Perhaps…he was being _a bit_ melodramatic—biting his lip, the pregnant one moves to sit beside Sousuke, resting his head a moment against the other man’s shoulder.

“I’m scared,” Rin admits weakly, feeling Sousuke connect their hands as he snuggles even closer to his beloved. “This is really happening.”

“Yeah,” Sousuke relays, nodding as he squeezes Rin’s hand. “Me too. But our daughter needs us to start being her parent’s a littler earlier than we planned.”

“Yeah,” Rin says quietly, covering his face with one hand as he sniffles, trying to hide his emotion even as he feels Sousuke pull his hand down so he can pull Rin into a chaste kiss, moving swiftly to scoop him up and then take him into their bedroom to put some clothes on so they can leave.

“…and Ai will probably need some therapy after this…” Sousuke jokes.

“S-shut up! You try doing this…”

“I think I’ll leave it to you…”

Sousuke somehow seems to remain calm in all of this, and it’s really helpful to Rin, who still had to stop whatever he was doing amid contractions, to have his husband with him to be his rock—and he knows that he’ll only need Sousuke more as labor progresses.

There’s a warmth that permeates his chest as Sousuke pulls out the tiny pink outfit stacked directly underneath the flap of their hospital bag, to make sure they already have everything in there, almost seeming to be startled by the size. Then he puts everything back again and returns his attention to his husband with the act of helping him out to the car.

After putting their own bags in the back seat, Sousuke rounds to the drivers seat, kissing Rin’s cheek and squeezing his husband’s hand as the climax of a contraction seems to be winding down—he smiles once Rin seems to regain composure, and then turns his attention to the gearshift, ready, _finally_ , to go to the hospital for real this time.

“Let’s go have our baby, Rin,” he says with affection in his voice, starting to back up out of their driveway.

“Yeah; let’s go have our baby, Sousuke.”

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to follow me on tumblr: www.l1nkp1t.tumblr.com


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